‘One-Way’ neighborhoods increase Halloween safety

Turn more than 500 trick-or-treaters loose and what do you get? Besides a mob of robots, knights, witches, Wonder Women, Supermen, princesses, pirates, goblins, ghosts, aliens and angels, that is?

You get an increased risk of injury when treat-toting youngsters and traffic in the Bayview-Mountainview neighborhood combine.

“With no sidewalks or even shoulders on the road, families walk in and among a snarl of cars and trucks,” said Adele Person-Groning, a mother of two. “Drivers find few places to park. Residents are trying to get home, while other drivers are slowly following their trick-or-treaters down the road.”

To make things a bit safer, Person-Groning and her neighbors, with support from the city of Homer and the Homer Police Department, have created “Halloween One Ways,” an effort to streamline traffic and provide a safety margin for youngsters.

Between 5-8 p.m. Oct. 31, vehicles will be directed to flow east on Mountainview with access from Main Street and west on Bayview with access from Kachemak Way.

“The lane closed to cars will be a pedestrian lane from 5-8 p.m., with exceptions made for residents trying to navigate home during those hours,” said Person-Groning.

Miranda Weiss, who also lives in that area of Homer and described Halloween as “a chaotic mass” of cars and people in costumes, said “Halloween One Ways” would make things safer.

“A vast majority of the neighborhood residents support the effort and volunteers are doing the work of making and posting signs and directing traffic on Halloween,” said Weiss.

To help minimize congestion, Person-Groning encouraged trick-or-treating visitors to the Bayview-Mountainview neighborhood park vehicles out of the area and walk rather than drive.

“In past years, trick-or-treating families have parked at the high school, in town or on side streets rather than add to the traffic,” she said. “The Calhoun Trail is a fantastic entrance to the neighborhood.”